This book simulates a historical walk through nature, teaching readers about the biodiversity on Earth in various eras with a focus on past terrestrial environments. Geared towards a student audience, using simple terms and avoiding long complex explanations, the book discusses …
Drylands make up more than 45% of the Earth’s land surface and are essential to agriculture and understanding global carbon and elemental cycling. This thesis presents an analysis of atmospheric relative humidity (RH) and temperature (T) as they impact soil moisture and water co…
In this dissertation, the origins of Fe-carbonates in the Paleoproterozoic Gunflint Formation of Ontario, Canada are investigated through petrographic and isotopic analysis of carbonate-rich Gunflint samples as well as experiments designed to elucidate the chemical conditions th…
Since life took its earliest footholds, organisms have been in a perpetual arms race. Evolutionary trial and error has produced increasingly complex organisms. All with a single purpose, to utilize available resources as efficiently as possible and reproduce. This progression ha…
Novel molecular isotope proxies measured in bivalve tissues represent a wide range of approaches for tracing ecological and climatological change through time and space. In comparison to other oceanographic data used to reconstruct modern and past biogeochemical cycles (e.g., ma…
One of the greatest challenges in science lies in disentangling causality in complex, coupled systems. This is illustrated no better than in the dynamic interplay between the Earth and life. The early evolution and diversification of animals occurred within a backdrop of global …
The hydrous alteration of ultramafic rocks, known as serpentinization, produces some of the most reduced (H2 >1 mmolal) and alkaline (pH >11) fluids on Earth. Serpentinization can proceed even at the low-temperature conditions (<50°C) characteristic of most of Earth’s continenta…
